Shaft seal



Patented Nov. 8.1949

UNITED-STATES PATENT OFFICE f SHAFT SEAL corporation of Ohio Application August 18, 1945, Serial No. 611,334

My present invention relates ,to a shaft seal of the diaphragm or bellows type, having means to prevent failure of the bellows or diaphragm as a result of vibrations set up in the seal.

One object of the invention is to provide a limiting means for limiting vibrations set up in a sealing ring of a shaft seal, so that immediately upon commencement of any vibrations they are damped out and are prevented thereby from becoming amplified and causing fatigue of the bellows or diaphragm with eventual breakage thereof.

Another object is to provide damping means for a sealing ring of a shaft seal in the form of limiting thrust elements, such as pins or the like, which may conveniently be placed within the coils of a plurality of sealin ring springs, the length of the pins being slightly shorter than the distance between the sealing ring and a housing, so that vibrations of even slight amplitude are quickly and effectively damped out.

With these and other objects in view, my invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of my shaft seal, whereby th objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claim, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is an inside elevation of a shaft seal embodying my invention; and

Figure 2 is a sectional view on the line 2-2 of Figure l-Figure 1 being taken as on the line i--l of Figure 2.

n the accompanying drawing, I have used the reference numeral ill to indicate a housing of a liquid pump, refrigerant compressor, air compressor or the like, my invention being applicable to any machine of the type wherein there is a housing from which a rotating shaft projects, and where it is desirable to have a shaft seal between the shaft and the housing.

The shaft is shown at l2 and it may be suitably journaled in bearings, such as M and I6, mounted in the housing ill, the bearings being of any desired type and forming no part of my present invention. The shaft l2 while being rotatable in the bearings I4 and I6 is limited against endwise movement as by enlargements l8 and 20 adjacent the bearings l4 and I6.

Shaft seals are known, the type shown being one in which there is a flange 22, a sealing ring '24, a plurality of springs 26 interposed between the two, and a. bellows or diaphragm 28. The flange 22 may be secured to the housing It as by cap screws 80, with a suitable gasket interposed 55 described,

1 Claim. (01. 28611) between the two. The sealing ring 24 has an annular projection 32 adapted to contact a shoulder formed by one of the planar faces of the enlargement IS, the springs 26 biasing the annular projection 32 against the shoulder of the enlarge ment l8, and the bellows 28 flexing to permit of such movement, yet providing a, seal against pressure exchange between the inside and the outside of the housing 10. The right-hand end of the bellows 28 is soldered to the flange 22, while the left-hand end is soldered to the sealing ring 24.

Shaft seals of the kind just described have proven satisfactory in connection with shafts which rotate at slow speed, such as those up to or 800 R. P. M. In many machines a higher shaft speed is required. 1 I have found that these higher speeds result in failure of the diaphragm or bellows within a very short period of time, due clllefly to lack of lubrication of the sealing ring 2 squeeze out any 011 between these two surfaces, and particularly at high speed, this results in a chattering-like vibration-the vibrations gaining amplitude after they commence with the springs 26 aggravating the vibratory condition. This results in rapid flexing of the bellows 28 and fracture thereof within a few seconds time. This has caused considerable difficulty in the production, particularly of fuel pumps for airplanes.

After several failures of this nature, I devised a means for damping the vibrations before they gained any considerable amount of amplitude, which may be simply done by inserting pins 3% in the springs 26. The pins are slightly less in length than the clearance between the sealing ring is and the flange 22, so that in no case do both ends of the pins contact with the two during normal operation. That is to say, the shaft I2 is limited in its movement toward the right and that limit of movement places the surfaces of the sealing ring 24 and of the flange 22 a predetermined distance apart. The pins 36 are then slightly less thanthis distance-for instance one sixty-fourth of an inch.

By placing the pins 38 in the springs 26 as just described, I found that any vibrations that commence are immediately damped out and all fall'- ures of the bellows 28 were thereafter eliminated.

Some shaft seals are provided with a diaphragm instead of a bellows, and where these diaphragms are subject to failure due to rapid flexing caused by vibrations, the structure may there be improved by the use of pins 24 in the manner The pressure of the springs 28 tends to While I have shown the pins as located within the springs, obviously they may assume other locations and may be in the form of thrust elements other than pins, the prime consideration being that any vibration of the sealing ring 24 be immediately damped out because of the available play being taken up as soon as there is any bouncing of the annular projection 82 away from the shoulder of the enlargement I8.

In the following claim, it is to be understood that the term bellows" applies also to 9, diaphram, the two being mechanical equivalents.

Some changes may be made in the arrangement and construction of the various parts of my shaft seal, without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claim, any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents, which may be reasonably included within its scope.

I claim as my invention:

In a shaft seal of the character disclosed, a housing, a shaft rotatable in said housing and limited as to end movement relative thereto, a shaft seal comprising a shoulder on said shaft,

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,770,273 Keema July 8, 1980 1,822,052 Maccabee Sept. 8, 1931 1,860,981 Bihl May 31, 1932 1,897,937 Joyce Feb. 14, 1933 1,956,366 Vedovell Apr. 24, 1934 2,277,771 McNab Mar. 31, 1942 2,301,723 Vedovell Nov. 10, 1943 

